~Observing a Lost Soul.

She tumbles around in the dark, vast emptiness. There is nothing here, not even pain. For some reason, that brings a smile to her face.

A smile?

Yes. She remembers smiling. She remembers smiling at the most beautiful person in the world. Ah, what she wouldn’t do to smile for her once more.

…

There is so much nothing here, so much she doesn’t understand and can’t remember. She feels like the nothing is supposed to mean something, but she can’t really comprehend it. After struggling with it for a time, she just lays back and smiles again. She remembered another face. The most handsome person in the world.

It’s so much better and easier to smile.

…

It’s been much longer now. She remembers those faces and people more clearly, but they’re not all smiles anymore. She remembers looks of concern, pity, and even sorrow.

She remembers seeing a sad man now too. The man is somehow clearer than even the most beautiful person in the world, and yet indistinct. But no matter how much effort she puts into her memory, she can only imagine him sad.

And so, she takes that sadness inside, and holds it close, and smiles for him all the same. Everything will be better so long as she smiles.

…

She remembers the pain she forgot. But that memory doesn’t really hurt in this nothing. Maybe that’s what the nothing’s something is. That makes her smile- but only for a moment.

As she thinks about her memories, she realizes something important. She’s supposed to know who the most beautiful people are, but even though she found a bunch of memories, none of them are as clear as they used to be. None except one. The sad man is just as clear as ever.

She realizes in that moment that she has a choice. Maybe the hardest choice she’ll ever have to make. Because she doesn’t have to look at the sad man, she can focus on the beautiful people and how they make her smile.

But if she does, the nothing will make her something into nothing too.

If she really wants to keep smiling, she needs to push against the nothing. She has to take back what it’s stealing from her. Even if that something it’s taking is pain.

She smiles a brittle smile at that. Wondering what she should do. What should she choose?

…

Thoughts are fading away, alongside the rest of her, but then she remembers one last thing about the pain. Maybe the most important thing. She had chosen to take the pain already.

The nothing is stealing from her. Worse, it’s almost too late to fight back, she’s let it grow too strong, too thick. If only there was something she could grasp onto to fight back.

“”

A child? Yes. She remembers now, she was a child.

But there isn’t anything else here in the nothing but her. She can’t call anyone for help because there is nothing else.

Mother. Oh!

Brother! The nothing tried to steal that from her too. Brother, Mother, those are the most beautiful people in the world and the nothing thought it could take you away.

It thought it could take Me away from you.

No.

I won’t let it.

If I am all that exists here, then I shall have to save myself. Even if I am still a child, if it takes a word to save me, then, “Moth’Her-” I shall be.

There is a burst of Light! -and Magic! -and Sound! So much something that even the nothing is buried under it all.

Welcome to your Initiation!

You’ve awoken your Mana Heart and are undergoing reclassification as an Entity.

I laugh with joy as the new something becomes words. But I’m a Mu’Reign, not an Entity. Silly words don’t even know what I am.

Nope. Not dead. I couldn’t be smiling if I was dead, try again.

*Scanning Entity to reevaluate species.

See! Now we’re getting somewhere. Would it help you along if I introduced myself? “I’m Moth’Her. Nice to meet you, Initiation.”

Welcome “Moth’Her” to |Disease Kingdom, Forest of Dreams|!

As a Dungeon Core, you have the vital task of refining Mana. An otherwise toxic non-dimensional substance that interacts with physical reality. #As a Scion to a Kingdom Dungeon, many of the Challenges and requirements asked of you can be deferred to a later time.

I somehow know what those words mean, but again, you’re using the wrong ones. If that is indeed what I am now, I’d be a Haunt Crux, not a Dungeon Core.

Ooh, and that’s some beautiful writing there that follows it up, but let me just interject to say, “Omen, not Scion.”

#Welcome back, little one. Both of your families are eager to meet you again.

The second set of prose is infused with joy, amusement, and pride and I can’t help but smile in response. I have a good feeling that I’ll get to meet that sad man soon, and this time, I’ll see about making him smile too!

~Life.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The world is so much larger, and also so much smaller than most realize. Eldest sister worries about losing herself. Big sister worries about losing others. While both the largest and smallest of my siblings lack the ability to worry, at least for now.

Life’s been easier for me in some ways. Not having to worry about moving and quickly outgrowing any concerns about feeding myself, I only needed to focus on increasing my size. Something that my original evolution was gifted at, and that now has more layers for what size actually means.

---

The nerve grass alerts me that our visitors have arrived, reminding me that I haven’t established this space as its own realm, and I wonder if I should, or even if I could. With Father’s Lungs taking up the most significance in this space, if I tried to isolate them in a realm, would it even work?

“Life. We have ascended your stairway. There is much we need to discuss,” says the holy one called Alex.

There only a few birds in this place. As I’ve grown larger and taller, fewer birds choose to nest within the safety of my uppermost branches. Though since I’ve been working on making new land, I may soon create a quaint little biome to better sustain those bound to me.

I wait until the delvers walk around my trunk once more, having arranged a network of branches to mimic and aid the far smaller Lungs to draw in more air and better distribute more magic. Now that they are at a place to witness Father’s Core, “~Congratulations on being the first to reach DNA’s core. I think I shall commemorate this occasion and enshrine this height for future use. As your prize, it has been decided you will receive two Heart Fruits and a message from DNA to pass along to your Guild.~

She sighs and shakes her head before straightening up and glancing around before settling her gaze upon the Lungs themselves, “What message would you have us deliver?”

Father forms around his lungs, takes a deep breath and then opens his eyes to look into hers, “(Do not mistake kindness for weakness.)” He pauses for a moment to let his message sink in, before swirling the Mako through the stems holding onto the Heart Fruits and having them lower down to the ground nearby.

Her eyes widen once the size of the fruits is made more clear, each of them nearly half her height, “Uh… we might have some difficulties transporting a living plant of that size. None of us are gardeners so we might not have the ability to store them in {Inventory}.”

The shadow one called Sid calls out from near the edge of the grassland, “If it were a hunk of meat, Garn or I could manage it with our hunting accolades. But I don’t think even Bond has living storage?”

The pureblooded Bond shakes his head, “I hadn’t realized I would need it. My Class is adjacent to the Tamers, but my connections are with people. Not like those Gravediggers or Necrokenetics that can store corpses but living people. Though while on that subject I’ve not heard of any skill or accolade that actually lets someone put a living person in {Inventory}.”

“Dawn, East!” is called out abruptly by Sid as Ruth’Moor flies through the upper branches of my crown and reaches the group.

Landing on the edge of the grasses, “%Pardon the intrusion. I couldn’t help but overhear your conundrum. The Mu’Reign all have inventories capable of storing small living plants and creatures. And while those fruits are far from small, it should be a simple matter for me to carry those for you, if you’d wish.%”

I address Alex’s concerns more directly after listening to their discussion, “~It shouldn’t be necessary to store or transport the Heart Fruits very far. They will soon die and no longer require such stringent measures. Once they have, the reasoning behind Father’s message will likely be more comprehensible.~”

Ruth’Moor, no longer having put the group on alert walks over and nods to Bond, “%To provide more knowledge to the seeker, I will freely state that at least by the Progenitor stage, what your Kingdom’s call Mythic, the ability to ‘store’ people can be acquired. As for when I have experienced this, it felt much like being in that moment of waking from a dream you cannot remember. A timelessness and almost comfortable confusion.%”

Using gestures to ask for permission, she then approaches the Heart Fruits to examine them more closely, “%Also, your Lady War has some ability that blurs the line that our Pantheon allows us Gods to freely cross. The army that follows her into battle is always fewer than the actual number of combatants faced, and the tally of the dead is never equal to the bodies on the ground. And while her power may cause death, her magic itself is drenched in life.%”

They mull around for a bit, speaking easily of small things and battles fought, before the Mu’Reign prods the fruit again, “%Life. If it is not too pointed a question, why is there a ratkin in each of these fruits?%”

Both Sid and Alex sharpen their attention at that, with Alex saying, “There aren’t any ratkin among the townsfolk. We’ve been stuck there for the last few weeks and would have known if any even passed through. Where did you find these?”

“~Both questions have a rather simple answer. Though I’m afraid that with Father’s limited exposure to your society, Ruth’Moor, I can only say that my and my sibling’s unique natures, of which their party is familiar, is responsible.~”

The party looks confused amongst themselves, “%What about the Mu’Reign would he like to know, such that I too could know this ‘secret’?%”

“(Politics,)” washes across the people here and I see as comprehension dawns among the humans and then that information is shared along their network. They huddle together and have a long discussion amongst themselves as Ruth’Moor bids the group farewell and flies back up into my crown to speak more privately with Father.

After several heated exchanges amongst themselves, Wildfire speaks up and gestures to the fruits, “If what you’re implying is what we think. Are those from you or Thing?”

I guide a breeze through my leaves as a smile, “~My elder and younger siblings, which you met last time, did the work to change them. But it is my power and privilege that provides these two with the opportunity.~”

Bond speaks up, “But there wasn’t any prompt or listing for-“ he’s interrupted by a poke in the side and emotive expressions remind him how easily they were overheard before, “-you. So, how?”

“~I’ll assume you’re not asking for details about the process itself. If so, the answer is merely a matter of the obfuscation a dungeon may bestow upon its Scions. Father’s advancement simply provided a number of additional options. Tell me, what do you know about the advancement process?~”

Their network lights up with internal communication once more before the group seems to disperse around the glade. The beast livered one named Garn takes a seat in the grass, facing the core, “Man and beast grow differently. Flora differently than fauna. Lord gains power and skills unattainable by commoner. Yet, each of these things the Kingdom has written down, studied, tested.”

He gestures to showcase everything around them, “Dungeons don’t advance like this. Not this fast, not even with ‘help’ from Myths. The {System} bars that level of interference. Even for ‘ordinary’ dungeon, less is known. For men and beasts, trees and Lords, there are thousands, and thousands more. Living dungeons countable by dozens, perhaps hundreds.”

Bond takes a seat next to him, “Sid was our information broker, even back before he started grouping with us full time. He said that there are artifacts that are crafted from the remnants of slain dungeons, though despite how thoroughly he investigated, the only real information he could gather was a rough estimate. The dead dungeons outnumber the living by an order of magnitude. The specifics on the how or why, if they are even recorded, are sealed beyond his reach.”

Alex raises a hand as I send a breeze of my confusion, “What we do know, is that sometimes, it is decided that a dungeon needs to be vanquished. Though it rarely happens, as even the Profane dungeons provide a rich battleground for advancement in many cases. But-“ she pauses and glances back at Wildfire who has closed her eyes and faced away.

Alex waits a moment longer before the slight nod from the other woman has her continue, “When a dungeon is thought to be {Tainted}, or in some other way corrupted beyond the capacity for reason. A crusade will be called to deal with it. Of the handful of incidents that I know have taken place in my lifetime, all of those were marked by a period of tranquility from the dungeon. Before it… changed.”

She gathers herself for a moment after letting that hang in the air, “I’ve looked into my family’s records, and from what I found, it seemed like only Wild and Profane dungeons had that condition escalate into disaster. The few times that I’d read of demons trying to {Taint} a Divine dungeon all ended in failure. That is partially why I felt it safe to trust in my instinct that DNA is good.”

I sigh across the whole of my great body for nearly a minute as I think on what I’ve heard, “~So, in essence, all that you know of dungeon advancement is that there are long periods of calm and that when they reawaken, there is a chance that they have gone insane, and need to be put down. Even though the nation still willingly works with some who are feral, so long as they are predictable and stay within certain parameters.~”

I find myself giving voice to the echoes of Dreams’ laughter I hear, “~But Father is bizarre beyond compare. He also shares traits that have meant incursions were nearby. And the only thing that provides comfort for a self-proclaimed Novice in her order, one who had another serve as her information broker and thus it can be concluded that her search efforts weren’t comprehensive… is Father’s Divine aspect. Of which, the revelation of these two may bring under further scrutiny.~”